


Coming Home

by Severely_Lupine



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-09
Updated: 2013-04-09
Packaged: 2017-12-07 23:30:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/754372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Severely_Lupine/pseuds/Severely_Lupine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Andromeda's first impression on meeting Ted's parents.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Coming Home

**Author's Note:**

  * For [scribblingfemme](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=scribblingfemme).



The house was small and run-down. Ted had said his family wasn’t rich, but Andromeda hadn’t quite understood how _poor_ they were until she saw it with her own eyes. Paint was peeling, the car out front was several decades old and rusting, but there was a well-tended garden in the corner of the yard.  
  
Andromeda hesitated on her way down the walk. “Are you sure—I mean . . .” She wasn’t at all sure what she meant, but she glanced down at her dress—hastily and (she’d thought) cheaply bought—and felt overdressed.  
  
Ted pulled her close and kissed her. “You’re fine, Dromeda. They’ll love you.”  
  
Andromeda wasn’t so positive, but she grasped Ted’s hand and let him lead her up the walk. He knocked twice and the door was flung open to reveal a jolly-looking man with a pot belly and a stout woman with graying hair. They were both wearing clothes that Andromeda’s mother wouldn’t have thought fit for servants, and they were both beaming.  
  
“Ted!” said the woman, and gave her son an enthusiastic hug. His father wasted no time doing the same.  
  
For an instant, Andromeda felt out of place, an interloper in this warm family reunion. She watched with a pang, wondering what it would be like to have ever had her parents greet her in that way. The most she could ever hope for from her own mum was a terse nod and a half-hearted hello. And now not even that. Narcissa had been kind enough to owl her and say that Aunt Walburga had burned her off the family tree and forbade anyone from acknowledging her existence. Narcissa made sure to let her know the risk she’d taken even in contacting her to tell her that, and assured her she’d not hear from her again. Andromeda had no doubt her parents would follow her aunt’s stricture with little qualm.  
  
Ted’s parents turned to her then, and she wondered what sort of interrogation she’d have to undergo to prove that she was worthy to have married their son, expecting a stern lecture about not even alerting them until after the fact.  
  
She was disappointed.  
  
“And you must be Andromeda!” cried the woman. “Look how lovely you are!”  
  
Then the woman fell on Andromeda with a crushing embrace, and Andromeda was stunned speechless.


End file.
